A new Start
by Delorita
Summary: After the very end of TDKR, there are still a lot of things to do. Gen, might become slash.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Set after the very end of TDKR.

oo0o0o0o0o0o0o

"I came to apologize."

Gordon almost didn't recognize the man who stood on his doorstep and spoke in a very low voice, two large take out cups of coffee in his hands.

If Alfred had not told him that Bruce Wayne was still alive, he probably would have started to believe in ghosts. The Commissioner opened the door wider to let the almost stranger into his small apartment.

"There is no need to." Gordon gestured towards his sitting room, closing the door firmly behind him.

"There is." The younger man stood uncertainly in the middle of the room, eyes scanning his surroundings out of habit. Gordon took the offered paper cup and let himself fall into his favourite chair.

"No, there isn't… Mr. Wayne."

"Bruce, please." The former billionaire sat awkwardly on the edge of the sofa. "I've let you down."

Gordon looked up surprised, carefully studying the man who he knew now had been Batman. There were fine lines around his eyes, a bitter firm set to his mouth – Batman's mouth – a few silver strands coloring the dark, slightly grown hair. He was well built but his posture kind of hunched together. Nothing left of the playboy he had always seen in the man.

Knowing he had been Batman was something entirely different than only guessing it.

"You never let me down," Gordon murmured and sipped from the hot liquid. "You just saved us."

"Well…that wasn't me alone. We were a team again…" Bruce's voice sounded very tired. He fidgeted with his cup, not able to look Gordon in the eye.

"Yes," the Commissioner nodded slowly, keeping his eyes on the man he considered a friend so many years ago. "Thank you for telling me the truth."

"It was time." Bruce took Gordon's appearance in. The Commissioner didn't look one year older than when he had last seen him close up. TV didn't count. He secretly wished he'd had the courage to tell him before the disastrous events of the last months.

When he'd heard Gordon lay injured in the hospital, he finally knew he had to act again, come out of his stupor.

Gordon sighed. He felt very honoured that "Batman" had revealed his true identity to him at last, but something in the younger man's behaviour showed him that there was something wrong. He didn't know how to deal with the new situation. In the past Batman always knew what to do, had the lead in their actions.

The man in front of him now seemed somehow broken, a mere shadow of himself.

"Want me to make us some more?" Jim took the empty paper cups. Bruce looked up at him and only nodded with a smile Gordon had never before seen on him.

He thoughtfully busied himself with coffee making in his tiny kitchen space, wondering what his guest really wanted.

"I can't do it anymore." Batman's voice startled the Commissioner and he abruptly looked around, just to see Bruce standing in the doorway. "But I would like us to work together again anyway. I really should have done that during those eight years. I'm sorry."

Gordon saw so much sadness in the expressive dark eyes that it gripped his heart deeply. He knew what living alone, being alone meant. He knew deep loneliness. When he was about to say something Bruce continued, "Lucius proved that at least part of the money got stolen, so there should be no problems to get it back and pay for the orphanages and the…"

"Mr… Bruce," Gordon interrupted and handed his still uncomfortable looking guest a really large cup and poured the hot black liquid for them, "I'd like to work with you again too, with or without that damn money." The Commissioner clicked their cups together in a salute, relief flooding him and he smiled too, "I'm glad you decided to come back into the land of the living."

That made Bruce chuckle a bit and he hummed appreciatively when he drank the first mouth full, "How did you know I drink it black?"

"Just a guess," the older man murmured.

"If…" Gordon slowly walked over towards the sofa again and sat down, clearly not knowing how to form his next sentence, "If you are not able to be… Batman anymore," he looked up uncertain, "Why did you repair the flood light?"

Bruce smiled at that and sat down beside Jim, elbows on his knees, turning the mug around and around, "I think there is a young man we could help a bit to become Batman's… successor…"

"Blake," Gordon stated immediately.

Bruce nodded, eyes staring at an imaginative point in front of him, lost in thought.

They sat in silence for a very long time until Gordon was brave enough to ask his next question, "You…you aren't dying of radiation poisoning or something?" His hand itched to stroke across the bent back, heart racing in his chest all of a sudden.

They'd tested the water and the shores, miraculously there wasn't any radiation. Batman must have dropped that bomb exactly in the extra deep part of the sea. If he hadn't, the city would have been in ashes anyway because of the resulting earthquake and the flood that followed.

Bruce looked at him, slowly shaking his head. "Lucius built something into the Bat that catapulted me miles away within seconds…" He trailed off, remembering the pain and shock and concussion that had caused when he'd landed. "Before you ask, yes I've seen a doctor about the poisoning. I'm fine. That's not the reason why I can't be Batman anymore." It's my damn body that doesn't cooperate as perfect as it once did, he added silently.

Gordon noticed how stiffly the other man was holding himself as though he was still in pain. He was just about to say something when Bruce asked, "What about you? You still want to fight the mob? Get those animals back into prison?"

The Commissioner fixed him with his stare for seconds, not a trace of doubt in his clear blue eyes that weren't covered with his glasses at the moment, "That's what we live for, you and I, isn't it?"

Bruce held that glance, remembering what it felt like to be without purpose over the span of eight years, without hope. Feeling some energy now again when he looked at Gordon and his never fading enthusiasm. "Yeah. You are right." He held out his hand and Gordon immediately took it, "For Gotham."

"For Gotham."


	2. Chapter 2

When Gordon rang the bell at Wayne Manor two days later and Alfred opened the door all butler-like, as though he had never left, the Commissioner couldn't resist a satisfied little smirk, and neither could Alfred.

"Good evening, Alfred," Jim greeted, "everything back to normal then?"

"Good evening, Commissioner." Alfred bowed slightly. "Not back to normal, but to something far better than we have had here in recent years."

They walked up the stairs and into the study. Alfred pressed the right piano keys, and led the Commissioner to the elevator that descended into the dungeon for the first time in his life.

Gordon held his breath.

And the sight that opened up to him was truly breathtaking. He'd always wished to see the Batcave just once. What he saw now was a hundred times more impressive than he ever imagined.

Alfred laid his hand on Gordon's shoulder and said over the roar of the waterfall, "His body is a wreck and he promised me to not go out there again. But on one condition," Bruce's father figure said as he pointed toward the far corner of the cave, "Will you please help him keep that promise?"

There was so much emotion in Alfred's voice, Gordon understood completely. "I'll try Alfred, I'll try."

When Bruce had told him he couldn't be the Bat anymore and not because of radiation poisoning, Gordon already guessed that Bane was responsible for that. He inwardly winced.

Then he squinted and finally was able to make out two black-clad figures that were fighting. Not in earnest, just some hand to hand combat moves every police officer learned in training.

"Young Master John would be the perfect successorof Batman," the butler stated.

Gordon was only able to nod, overwhelmed. He hesitantly walked closer.

Bruce wasn't wearing the cowl, but the Batsuit. Gordon couldn't hear them but he saw them talk then practice some moves again.

He felt joy and sadness all at once, his thoughts whirling.

Batman had been his only ally in the fight against the mob all those years ago. They had made tremendous progress. They worked together almost on instinct, few words needed, their love for Gotham evident in all their actions, including the last terrible incident with Dent and the Joker.

When Batman had told Gordon to hunt him, Jim was sure he would see him again one way or another.

But he didn't.

And it hurt.

It hurt far more than he would ever admit to himself. He built up the whole big lie alone. Felt miserable, lonely. He couldn't even blame Barbara for leaving him and take the kids after what had happened in the Joker's warehouse of death.

He missed Batman, his only friend.

And he made the connection when Bruce Wayne disappeared from sight as well. No stories about him with women anymore, no car races, no scandals, nothing in the big tabloids. It was as if the billionaire had been swallowed from the face of the earth.

Gordon had his suspicions before, that the extravagant playboy's second identity was the silent guardian of the city. His disappearance along with Batman was proof enough.

But the Commissioner was not brave enough to ring the bell of Wayne Manor back then, to ask questions, to inquire, to go as a friend looking for a friend. He couldn't. It was just too strange and impossible.

So he endured his loneliness, endured each and every Harvey Dent Day, knowing his heart would bleed at the absence of the city's true hero.

Somehow he felt him watching, however…

"Commissioner," Batman's voice ripped him out of his musings. A gloved hand slapped his shoulder and the strange mixture of Batman and Bruce Wayne, added in a teasing tone he would never have connected with either of them, "Welcome amongst the bats."

Gordon swallowed and blinked. His voice seemed to have left him. Bruce looked so different. Jim's brain felt like it needed a restart. His hair rumpled and droplets of sweat gathering on his forehead and temple, eyes sparkling with joy and a smile lacking either arrogance or falseness. All of this combined with the Bat suit and the Bat voice. Jim needed to sit down.

He was not easily shocked, but this went far beyond his emotional capacity for some strange reason.

"Gordon, are you all right?" Two strong hands clasped his shoulders and those eyes that had just sparkled looked very worried.

"Yes, yes of course," he managed. "It's just…" and something inside of him let him say, "I just never expected to see my friend again. The silent Guardian of Gotham."

Bruce kept his hold on Jim's shoulders. His expression changed from playful to earnest and almost dark. He whispered, "I'm so sorry," again.

Gordon lifted his arms and grasped Batman's armour around his bicep in an attempt to steady himself. "So am I," was all he could say.

They continued to stare at each other.

John Blake had watched the scene from afar. He didn't know how to react. He wanted to go and greet the Commissioner but then he realized that the two older men had a very private moment.

He felt he should turn away but he couldn't. Both his heroes in one place, he never thought he'd ever witness that. Batman had always been a tale from the past, so this felt like living in a fantasy. He could see now how deeply moved Gordon was. The Commissioner had explained to him before Bruce Wayne's "funeral" how things with Harvey Dent had really played out. Blake couldn't understand why Gordon had been all choked up and why his voice sounded so odd.

He understood now.

There was a bound between those two men no one could ever break.

After a few moments both Bruce and Jim became aware of the fact that they were not alone and they reluctantly loosened their grips.

"Alfred told me about your promise." Gordon straightened his jacket and looked expectantly at John Blake, who started to come over.

"I intend to keep it…Jim." Bruce's voice sounded strangely soft.

There was no more time for explanations, since the young ex-officer had come to shake Gordon's hand.

"You really want to do this?" His ex-boss asked.

"Yes, Commissioner," Blake said in a firm voice. "I can't bend the government's rules, but I can make my own to help you two fight the mob."

"I thought he isn't…" Gordon looked confused from Blake to Bruce.

"No he won't be out there with me but…" Blake started.

"I'll be his extended eyes and ears. I haven't forgotten Lucius' sonar system." Bruce grinned slightly, "and besides, this young man still needs some special training in case he might encounter someone like Bane."

Both men regained their fighting positions and Bruce put on his cowl, saying in Batman voice, "Plus someone needs to repair the equipment."

Gordon smiled. Bruce just could not leave it be and the Commissioner was glad about it. He was not sure how much Alfred would approve of those training sessions, but he guessed that was something Bruce would not let himself negotiate. There were no enemies down here, after all, and he was old enough to know what his body still could do and what it could not.

Jim settled down on a large stone to watch them fight, delighted to see Batman in action with no immediate threat. For some reason his body started to feel all tingly and an unknown energy was surging through him. Soon he threw away his jacket and stood. Batman winked at him and so he took his friend's side and together they made Blake work hard for his better skills.

F I N (Dear readers, the slashy version with six chapters is up in my LiveJournal with the same user name. Thank you.)


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